


The Walls of Jericho

by YumKiwiDelicious



Category: Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Miles is a precious baby who must be protected, Rose is a maniac, emily is still dead, for now, so is billy lee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 09:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17281643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YumKiwiDelicious/pseuds/YumKiwiDelicious
Summary: She’d seemed so broken there, sobbing over the man they called Billy Lee. Her cries came in jagged, wet heaves as if she were trying to hack up a piece of glass, and she clutched the cult leader to her front, tiny arms shaking under his weight. Watching her like that, Miles thought she resembled a rabbit he’d once caught in a trap back in Virginia.





	The Walls of Jericho

She’d seemed so broken there, sobbing over the man they called Billy Lee. Her cries came in jagged, wet heaves as if she were trying to hack up a piece of glass, and she clutched the cult leader to her front, tiny arms shaking under his weight. Watching her like that, Miles thought she resembled a rabbit he’d once caught in a trap back in Virginia. Fearing death the usually silent creature had let out a series of chilling screams as it twisted and struggled, eventually snapping its own neck trying to escape.

In the rising heat of the fire Miles imagined Rose twisting and screaming and trying to escape until her little neck got wrung to ruin and she laid still, eyes glazed over and still looking manic and trapped. He imagined that was the dance her soul was doing somewhere deep inside her body, trying and failing to free her of the anchor of Billy and his followers, still yet blind to the fact that her sister lay dead a few feet away. She was sick in the head, obviously, and didn’t realize she was howling over the death of a maniac.

Miles realized with a sudden clarity that this girl needed to be saved.

Fire still devouring The El Royale, his home for more years than he cared to recall, he laid down the gun he’d taken with such confidence and approached the shattered girl. Somewhere behind him he heard the singer and the phony priest scrambling to collect the money; arguing over what should happen next and where exactly they were meant to go. He ignored all of that as he came upon Rose, her slender shoulders still quaking under the weight of her sorrow. He felt for her, he really did. Which was why he took to his knee behind her, wide hand reaching out to rest against her back. She was frigid to the touch even sitting in flames and her crying seemed to ease as he squeezed her shoulder blade.

Fearing that talking too loudly would ruin her further, he murmured a soft, “I’m sorry,” voice barely carrying over the natural roar of the fire. 

Of course he wasn’t really sorry, but he figured this was what Rose needed to hear. He’d seen the way she’d danced through the lobby, completely uncaring of decorum and social expectations. And how in response her sister had treated her like a basketcase, incapable of following even the most simple instructions. Even as she’d been tied up and rendered unable to participate in a conversation, Emily had spoken at her, stating all the ways she was going to help the girl to get clear completely against her will. Miles saw that and thought how this lonely child just needed to feel validated; to feel heard. No doubt she’d joined a cult to feel like she had some place in the world. Billy Lee had given that to her. Miles was sure God could do it better.

“I’m sorry.”

A few sharp sniffles were his reply, but eventually the girl seemed to steal herself and sit back from Billy Lee. Miles spared him a brief glance and would have flinched if not for the state of his own face. The once beautiful man’s cheek was burnt and swollen from his tussle with the priest and a bullet hole ripped neatly right through the center of his head. Miles had always been a damnably good shot.

Rose kept her back to him but slowly took to her feet, the boots Billy had been so taken with looking almost comically large on her. Miles gathered she couldn’t be more than sixteen. He stood as well, hovering over her shoulder as he waited for her to fall into him. She was probably still shaken and needed a living, breathing shoulder to cry on and he was ready to give her that. When she started to turn it felt like some light feathered thing had entered his soul and he let out an inaudible sigh. 

She would be okay. 

They would be okay. 

He would save her.

When she was finally facing him, Miles was struck by the resemblance Rose bore to Emily. He had stared at the hippie so long and hard, pleading for his life, he doubted he would ever forget the smooth valleys of her face. Rose had similar valleys, smaller in some places, sadder in most. Her eyes looked almost too large for her face and they stared up at him suddenly dry of tears and searching. The fire all around them cast shadows over her cheeks making her look small and fragile. He gazed back, thinking offhandedly that he could get lost in those eyes, as he moved to reach out for her again.

“Miles, look out!”

Darlene’s warning came just a touch too late and yet right in the knick of time. Miles glanced down as Rose brandished the knife she’d hidden away on her person. She thrust it forward into his belly right when he moved to jump back. The blade found it’s target, but not as close as it’d been hoping to. He was cut about two inches deep before slipping off it’s serrated edge. Rose had moved as if to slice it clear across his gut, so when the blade was removed it left a jagged cut across his stomach. Not nearly so deep as it could have been, but still enough for Miles to catch his breath with the pain. He collapsed backwards into a pile of singed dollar bills.

The girl howled with anger, the fire all around them suddenly making her look demonic as her mouth twisted open and she raised both arms up, knife clutched in her tiny hands. Miles gaped, own hands clasping at his wound as he stumbled back, a plea ready on his lips when the shot rang out. Rose’s whole body jerked as the bullet ripped through her shoulder. Turning towards the priest, Miles saw him ready to shoot again.

“No!”

Darlene heeded his call and wrestled the older man’s arm down, his second shot finding a home in the ground. Rose seemed to fold in on herself, knife clattering away as she clutched at her bleeding arm. Miles panted and gasped, hands slippery over his abdomen as he watched the hippie pick up her crying again in earnest. A dark stain was spreading across her arm and side as the man that had called himself Father Flynn rushed up and landed a savage punch to the girl’s jaw. She slumped down to the ground and Miles groaned deep back in his throat in pain and regret.

The singer was there then, short hair dusted with soot and embers as she tried to pry his hands away from his stomach. He was bleeding heavily and Miles could feel the blood loss and stress and good old fashioned fear starting to drag him down into darkness. Down into hell. The fire was only getting hotter as he tried to gasp around the smoke and sweat that were filling his lungs. He didn’t want to die there and he said as much as Darlene waved Father Flynn over to help her. Beneath his pained protests the two strangers managed to prop him up, the bag of money flung over Darlene’s back as they dragged him from the hotel.

Outside the air was almost painfully crisp and Miles gasped nearly a thousand times as Darlene slipped out from under his arm, leaving him leaning heavily on Flynn. The man was muttering at him to hold on and not give up and keep faith and a bunch of other things Miles could only half focus on as he tried not to fall to the ground. He felt like his ears were stuffed with cotton and he was blinking back unconsciousness at every moment as Darlene hotwired a car to pull around. Once she was there and they were lifting him into the car and arguing about where they were supposed to take him, he remembered the feathered thing suffocating in his soul.

“Rose.”

“What?” Flynn managed to hear him over his and Darlene’s quarrelling outside the back seat door and leaned in to hear him better. “What’d you say?”

“Rose,” Miles murmured, everything seeming to swim before his eyes, “The girl.”

“Are you out of your mind?!”

The man’s hackles were immediately up and he was arguing with Miles who couldn’t even comprehend what he was saying. He chest stuttered now during each breath and he huffed a wet exhale while Darlene pulled the priest from the car to fight for whatever she thought about the situation. Their voices were dull drums and the former hotel employee just hoped they were talking about the tiny hippie lain out in hell still and about how she needed saving.

Everything faded into black.

When it faded back in Flynn was gone and Darlene was dragging Miles across the backseat with great effort that caused him to blackout in pain.

When he came to again there was a tiny body leaned against him reeking of smoke and blood and the car was moving. Rose had been left in the fire so long, her hair had caught and been burned near to her chin. He watched her tiny chest rise and fall where she layed nearly in his lap, blood still oozing out of both of them and huffed a surprised gasp. In the front seat Darlene and Flynn were talking amongst themselves, not arguing thankfully, and the sun was well up. 

He passed out again.

The last time he woke the car was still moving and Rose was still there and Flynn was the only one awake in the front seat. Miles could see Darlene’s head leaned against the passenger window. At some point someone had stuffed a towel over his stomach and while the cloth was stained with blood it was brown and crusted and he didn’t appear to be bleeding anymore. The faux priest glanced over his shoulder and caught the former soldier’s eye.

“Hang in there, son,” he said gruffly, sounding eons passed exhausted, “We’re almost there.”

Miles drifted off once more.

**Author's Note:**

> I eventually want to expand this into a full Miles/Rose story but for now it can be a one-shot.  
> Rating and description will eventually change.


End file.
